Correct Valve Cover and Cam Lobe

[Garry]

I just changed over the valve cover in my car to a cleaned up one whilst I get what I thought was the original valve cover soda cleaned to put back on, however I noticed that the cover I took off had a screw in type oil filler cap and the one I have put on is the half turn cap with cork seal.

Is the correct one for a Euro 280SL the twist to remove cap?  The illustrations in the Valve Adjustment tour in the Tech Manual appear to suggest that.

A second question, I noticed on the rear most cam at the top of the lobe has what appears to be some rusting on it rather than a smooth surface like all the others that suggests to me that the rocker arm is not touching the lobe at the top?  Is that indicating a problem?

Garry

[ja17]

Hello Gary,

The screw on type valve cover cap is used on the earlier 280 SLs.  Some time around 1969-1970 they changed to the half-turn style.

Some history...........the screw on type caps were used way back into the 50s. You'll find them on the 190SLs, 300SLs and most others models.  In fact the same cap was used for a gas filler cap on the ponton sedans !  The only difference is that the screw on gas caps had a cork seals since since synthentic rubber resistant to gasoline was not in wide use at the time.

As long as your cam lobe is not worn you should not have a problem.  I would adjust the valves while your in there if you have not done it already.  You may even want to slip out the rocker arm on that particular lobe to see if it is worn.